Seasons
by turtlbrdr
Summary: Clair and Gray aren't friends, but things will start to happen that will make or break their relationship. Rated for language and real life.
1. More Friends of Mineral Town

**Seasons: Coming soon to a story board near You! **

Hikari: "Hi! I'm Hikari. Travis is finally starting a new story."

**Holds up flag. **

Hikari: "He wasn't here right now so I decided to take over, for a bit. For all of you who have been waiting for other stories to get new chapters, sorry I got nothing. I asked him what should be said, but he told me that he was just too busy and muttered something the effect of "I'm outta the zone". Personally between you and me I think he's just being a lazy bastard".

**Glass shatters**

Hikari: "Oh um I think I should go now, bye!"  
Travis: "HIKARI, get back here!"

**Indiscriminate yelling/swearing **

Travis: "A'ight here's your goddess-damned story"

Hikari: "And remember even though this story contains only me getting yelled at so far, this story is in no way affiliated with/endorsed by Natsume or any of its co-companies."

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**Chapter 1: **

**More Friends of Mineral Town**

**(Not that there are anymore…)**

_**Claire's POV, Fall 2**__**nd**_

"Let's see seeds, oil, flour, and bread." I said to myself, silently reciting my shopping list in my mind.

"I'm outta here; even looking at you makes me want to commit murder." I heard someone shout. Looking up I saw a boy, roughly my age, slam the door to the blacksmith shop and stomp in my direction.

"What are you looking at?" He yelled. Stopping as he did.

"Nothing just walking, that isn't a crime now is it?" I retorted.

"Don't question me, Shorty" Oh no, he didn't! Ever since I was small I absolutely hated being called short. There's no way he's getting away with this. Screw shopping this is personal.

"Gyaah!" I screamed as I tackled him onto the ground and started beating him senseless. It's actually pretty hard to remember what I was screaming as I did so all I knew was that this bastard had insulted me and he was going to pay BIG. However in all my rage I never took into account of where we were and when he shifted to get away, the next thing I knew was that we were both falling. Falling down the steep river side was bad enough then we hit the bottom and I tried to scream from the immediate pain, but the wind was out of me so the expected sound didn't come; all that did, was darkness

_**Gray's PoV, Fall 2**__**nd**_

"I'm outta here; even looking at you makes me want to commit murder." I screamed. It was true I hated my old ass of a grandpa. He expects me to work harder than I possibly can. He blames me for the smallest of mistakes. "What are you looking at?" I yelled; the blonde girl, Claire, being my target.

"Nothing just walking, that isn't a crime now is it?" She replied smartly.

"Don't question me, Shorty" Don't ask me why I said that I don't know. Suddenly she screamed and jumped onto me beating me in the face as hard as she could. She was screaming things like "Don't call me short!" and something that came across to my mind as "You deserve it!" Then it happened I tried to get out from under her not noticing we were on the edge of the slope down to the river, we began tumbling down into the river bed until we finally ended up on the rocks that line the banks.

Then that's when I heard one of the most gut-churning I've ever heard in my life. "CRACK" I looked over to Claire who look about ready to scream, but nothing came out, she then passed out. I then noticed where the noise came from; Claire's arm had been completely dislocated.

"Gray? Gray are you alright? Oh my God, let me get help." I knew exactly who's voice that was, my grandfather's, Saibara's. Though that wasn't on my immediate concerns list, I looked back to Claire who now looked like she was having trouble breathing. Surprising myself I found myself lifting her up bridal-style. Carrying her towards the clinic.

"Why hello Gray, what brings you…Oh my goodness. Doctor!" Elli screamed as I entered the clinic.

"Elli, what's with…" Doctor Trent paused seeing what the commotion his desk nurse had alerted him to. "Okay get me a stretcher, take her into X-ray, Stat. **(Travis: A.N. I've always wanted to use that "stat" thing, just never got to, until now!)**

_**Claire's PoV, 7hrs later**_

I woke up several hours later in the doctor's office. I couldn't move my left arm, and I was immensely pained in my chest just below my right breast (whose size, truth be told, honestly amounted to very little…) "Elli?" I said asking for the presence of the brown-haired nurse who was one of my close personal friends.

"Claire, you're up." She said coming into the room.

"Yep, and now it's time for everyone's favorite game" I said, trying to sound as humorous as I could, despite being in shitloads of pain. "How Badly Did I Jack Myself Up This Time?" **(Travis: You really should get that game, its loads of fun!)**

"Well let's see" Elli laughed going along. "You dislocated your left arm, have three cracked ribs, multiple scratches, bruises, and cuts, and you've finally achieved in giving yourself a minor concussion."

"That's all huh?" I said sarcastically.

"Afraid so" She replied, scribbling something down on a clipboard.

"…So when do I get out?" I asked sitting up.

"The doctor would have liked to keep you longer, but after some persuasion, he said you could go home soon after you woke up." Elli replied, noting down something, probably miscellaneous medical jargon, down on the clipboard that had been, until, resting in its shelf on the foot of the bed.

"Is she okay?" I heard a gruff voice. "Looks like you're okay, Shorts" Goddamn it! Again? Idiot just didn't learn did he?' I would have gotten up and slugged him in the stomach, but a quick burst of pain from my left arm (My slugging arm…) told me that it wasn't going to happen. I sighed and slumped down in the hospital bed.

"Could you please not call me that?" I muttered. Gray's expression softened a little from his "I-don't-care" look.

"Sorry…" It sounded exactly like the last 10 times he's said it to me. Gray and me certainly shared our share of spats, but never one that resulted in injury. Then again there was that one time that Rick tried to break one of our fights up, he succeeded, but only because I had punched him in the nose; sending him to the floor, out cold and breaking his nose in the process. But alas…

"So how bad are you busted up?" I asked him.

"Not nearly as bad as you are; a few bruises, cuts, nothing I'm not used to from my work. Except the fact that my head will kill me tomorrow." He said tipping his hat down and leaning against the wall.

"By that you must mean to hint at the fact that it will swell up, absorb all the blood in your body, and then leave the rest of you to shrivel up." I commented, trying to make an attempt at humor to keep mind off the ever existing pain in my arm.

"I meant a headache, but I'll have to watch out for that" he said letting off a chuckle.

"Alright" Elli said interrupting. "You'll be happy to know that you can go home now Claire"

"Great1" I sighed, I'll be able to sleep in my own bed tonight. (No offense, but hospital beds suck; especially the ones in mineral town, they're to soft.)

"You're also very lucky" Elli continued.

"And how's that?" I questioned, tilting my head to the side.

"We got some new kinds of braces in for broken arms and legs in similar situations as yours so you'll be at least be able to bathe with this type, since you can remove it. However only remove it for that, if you end up hurting it more; me and the doctor will have our way with you and put your arm in a real cast. Don't bend down to much using your back, use you're knees, because of your cracked ribs. Also try not to do to much lifting with that arm, but if you need to move something heavy then I'm sure Gray and Saibara wouldn't mind coming over for a few minutes to help you" She explained, showing me to my newest hardware piece, and glanced at Gray during the last part.

"Alright, any questions?" Elli asked handing me three pill bottles

"Yeah, when do I get this damn thing off?"

"You can start removing it for simple things in about a season, and depending on how it's healed you can take it off completely in spring,"

"Great" I said, becoming slightly drowsy.

"Claire? You look tired are you ok?" Gray asked.

"She's fine" Elli said. "The medication we gave her is probably starting to kick in, though. Gray can I ask you a favor?" She asked, Gray nodded. "Could you take Claire home and then stay with her tonight?"

_**Gray's PoV**_

"Could you take her home and then stay with her tonight?" Elli asked looking just a pinch worried.

"Yeah I guess so." I muttered, but curiously wondered "But why stay with her?"

"Well other than the fact that she has a broken arm…" Elli continued, as I looked at the blond farmer girl putting on her shoe. "The medicine I mentioned earlier appears to have started to work a little earlier than it's supposed to; in other words, just to make sure she doesn't have complications."

"Are you ready to go" Claire asked flatly.

"You're ok with me going with you, that's weird of you." She usually doesn't want help at all, she'd break her arm before…agh nice choice of words there Gray.

"It's not like I have a choice" she said turning to Elli. "Nurses orders I'm sure." She finished with a small smile.

"Alright then, we are off" I grunted.

The trip to Claire's house was uneventful. It was to awkward to talk to her from my end; and she probably couldn't think of anything to say or for that matter, think of anything besides going home. Tonight was going to be pretty uneventful.

As we walked up to the door Claire opened it, getting in I set her stuff by the door. I looked around; it was a humble home to say the least, until now I had only gotten a glimpse of the inside when I occasionally stopped by (usually by some crazy request by grandpa.) She had her kitchen, bedroom, and living are in the front room, while off in the back I saw a small room, probably her bathroom. I had to say though… I liked the general look of the place.

"Gray?" Claire asked.

"Yeah?" I replied

"What's you favorite color?" What an odd question, wait did she just giggle? This could be bad…

"Uh, Blue why?" I said still admiring the intricate trimming applied to the walls.

"…Which ones do you like better?" she asked.

"Which ones w-w-w-wha" Yeah this was going to be bad. What I turned to meet was the blond girl slouched against her bed, holding two pairs of blue boy short panties, a slight blush noticeable on her face.

"Which ones do you feel would look better on me?" she asked giggling a little. Goddess, what the hell had Elli given this poor girl? It certainly wasn't doing her any good.

"Claire, are you feeling alright?" Was the only thing I could think of right now.

"Which ones Gray?" She said in sing song voice. This was about where my brain started to say "Oh my god". While the rest of me could help but notice that both the pairs of panties she was holding were exactly the same. I wasn't even her friend and she was showing me things that have a secondary name of "unmentionables."

"Claire I think you should get ready for bed, worry about that tomorrow." I suddenly blurted out. Thank goddess my subconscious still had some ground to stand on. She got up and swaggered to the backroom as I finally got a chance to sit down and recover from the almost-heart attack I had just been handed. Thoughts of rouge Claire's panties related topics started flowing into my mind, a lovely gift from my hormonally-crazed teenage years.

"Gray I'm ready." Claire's voice suddenly rang. I looked up to notice she had changed into a white T-shirt that was long enough to fit all the way down to her mid-thighs. I got up and led her to her bed, as she climbed in she spoke up again. "Gray, do you think I'm pretty?" she asked catching me off guard. "My dad never said I was." She added. What was Claire's family like? She never talked about them; just another mystery of the blond girl, some people said.

"Yes you are" I spoke up. Truth be told she was, very, in fact; but there was also a part of me that didn't want to hurt her right now, a part of me that burned when we always fought. A similar soft spot to that of the one with Mary.

"Thank you" she whispered. Then she did nothing either of us would have expected (or would have expected to happen), she leaned up and place a small kiss on my cheek then immediately reclined and was out light like a light. However for me the kiss didn't end there, it felt strange to receive a kiss from someone your not even friends with. What was more disturbing was the fact that I couldn't get mind to "put it down" and leave me alone. Finally, feeling tired I laid down on the couch, which was surprisingly comfy, and fell asleep.

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Travis: Well that's it for now, this is what I'm on right now. I find I can really only right about/on a story if I am concurrently favoring the subject. So this is what happened to my other stories…any way I still don't know the exact direction I want to take this story in right now. All I know is that it will Graire fic

Hikari: I still say you're a lazy bastard!

Travis: sigh I have to go now, death is to be had."


	2. First Night

**Seasons: With Gray Skies!**

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Hikari: Hi 'all I'm back. Travis let me be kind of a co-author. So I'll add my opinion in the story every once in a while.

Travis: I can't believe I agreed to this…

Hikari: Alright, the standard disclaimer applies, read, enjoy, have fun! Also if you could go to Travis's user page and vote in the poll there, that would help us a lot.

**SunshineGirlx3: Here you go hope I was fast enough for you )**

**Uhmanduhbby: Thank you and I hope this was fast enough for you to.**

**Harvestmoonrox: Don't worry about more chapters I have gotten enough HM stuff over this summer to keep me occupied with this series for a long time (not to mention both Tree of Tranquility and Island of Happiness are coming out within the next two weeks.)**

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**Chapter 2:**

**First night**

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_**Gray's PoV, 2:39AM Fall 3**__**rd**_

I woke up, not because it was light out. I couldn't figure it out; then I heard it, a sound that was so familiar somehow, the sound of someone crying. But who? I didn't realize where I was right away, I thought for a couple of seconds; then I remembered I was at Claire's house, but that meant that the only person who could be crying is…"Claire!" I said, as I jumped up and went over to her bed. She was alright, she was absolutely sobbing in her sleep, and the ruffled sheets suggested that this was more than just a quick burst of tears. "Claire, Claire, Wake up" I said, picking the weeping female; pausing just momentarily to notice how light she was; trying in vain to awaken her from her obvious nightmare. I sat down on the couch with her still in arm, and for the moment she started to settle down. I held her for a few more minutes, and by then she had completely stopped. I sat there a while, thinking about when she came to the village, and the first day we met.

I had gotten into a fight with my grandfather; she had just moved in and was going through the town the first day, meeting everyone. It was the first day bliss so she had gone out early to meet everyone. Grandpa's shop wasn't open, and she didn't come upstairs in the inn; so she knew neither of us. She had apparently decided to go to grandpa's shop later in the day, on her way back to her farm. Ah, but alas. She came in during the argument; I, being the self-centered asshole she probably thought of me as when she'd left, opened my big mouth and spewed bullshit on the poor farmer noob (inside joke, heh heh.)

Since then, I like to think we've become just a little more than acquaintances. "Enemies are friends in ignorance" someone famous said that once, I think; I wasn't sure, it was one of those things that you think you've heard, but probably really just made up. I turned my attention back to the blond haired girl I had rested on my lap. She was small, skinny, and very cute; but there was something about her I didn't quite understand.

What I didn't understand was that this blond, petite, cutie could probably go after any guy she wanted in this small town, but she didn't. She was completely different from the blond flirts I had been accustomed to in the city. I couldn't put my finger on why I was so transfixed by this single idea; that every blond, cutie didn't have to be a total flirt, or at least not this one.

Finally, sleep came calling again for me, I welcomed it. Letting me forget my confusion, at least for the moment.

_**Claire's PoV, 6:23AM**_

_??: "You're an ugly, short hic little brat" He taunted. _

_Me: "No I'm not" I screamed, crying profusely. _

_??: "Oh, Yes you are. And you mom's even worse the deceptive, toady, harlot." He yelled._

_**BANG!**_

I woke up with a start, I knew it didn't happen that fast, but that was what it had become after the several years of regular dreaming of it. It had decayed to just the three lines and the gunshot, but I wished it would go farther into dilapidation. But it won't, it's been like this for the past two years, why would it go any farther now? It was the final night for the evil that still grasps my life over 12 years later. The final night for him. A person so vilely pretentious in my life that I dare not remember his name; for that, I feared, would be too much.

I then became conscious to the presence of someone holding me, I turned around. It was Gray (who, I must quickly admit, looked absolutely adorable in the morning light.) I was relieved, he had stayed; I was worried he wouldn't. But soon my attention wandered to why he was holding me. I hope he didn't see… he must have. I wished that no one would ever have to know about my crying spells, but it seems this wouldn't be the case. These spell happened nearly everyday. Gray knew, it would have been almost impossible for him not to, wouldn't it?

For now however I got up carefully and began my daily routine, albeit horrifying myself when I found some of the contents of my panty drawer strewn about near my bed. I would have to find out what happened last night, because I had no answers to that question. I slowly took myself over to my bathroom and began my morning shower.

_**10 Minutes later**_

Finished with my morning shower, I stepped out of my Bathroom. Gray was still asleep, but instead of the upright position I had left him in, he had found himself into lying on the couch, quite peacefully-looking I might add. I decided to try and cook breakfast; luckily my arm was not being the greatest roadblock I could think of, it was quite easy to compensate for it so far, but I doubt it would stay this way throughout the day. With all the farm work I would need to do there was bound to be problems, conflicts, to be sorted out.

Breakfast was very simple, just a stack of pancakes and some accompanying eggs and bacon. Gray had woken up about half-way through preparation, and was still sitting on my couch looking somewhat delirious in the morning mind fog. "Breakfast is ready" I said, putting the two separate plates on my small wooden table.

"Um…good morning?" Gray said, a questioning look on his face "What is today?"

"Fall 3rd, Why?" I responded.

"Isn't the music festival today?"

"I would be, didn't you get the memo?" I asked chuckling to myself.

"No." He responded flatly

"Okay" I began. "Apparently Carter has to go to some religious group, as part of him being a pastor. So he sent out a note explaining that explains he'll be gone 'till about part-way into next week. So long story short, it's been cancelled."

"Hmm..." he responded. "Good Pancakes by the way."

"Thank you, by the way could I ask you to do something for me?"

"If it's 'feed my cows,' no!" He responded quickly.

"No it isn't" I said giggling to myself about the time I asked Gray to do that for me. It was a sunny summer day and I had asked Gray to help me feed my cows so I could get somewhere (I think I had an appointment.) Well long story short; the cows must have been so sick of the bullshit that Gray was known to spew out, that they decided to spew some of it on him, literally. "I was wondering if you could tell me about what happened after we left the clinic, I kinda don't remember" I couldn't at all. Gray paused eating, wiped his hands on his napkin and began.

"Well we got back to your farm, I admired your wall trimmings, you asked me on my preference between two pairs of identical panties" As I heard this I turned red. "Then I told you to get ready for bed, you did, then as you climbed in you asked me 'Gray, do you think I'm pretty?'" as he said this he mimicked my voice, badly. "And I said…" he trailed off.

"And you said?" I already knew the answer to this one, if he had said anything less than "yes;" it would have led to him being beaten again; even in my apparently deluded state. I just liked teasing him.

"I said..." he started. "Yes" he had said this part so quietly I could barely hear at all. However, even if I wasn't able to her it, I would still have known what he said from the dark hue of red he turned afterwards.

"…but I woke on the couch with you…" I added, I had to know what Gray would say about this.

"Well, um…this might sound weird, but you were crying in your sleep last night" He said, finding the view outside of my window a very interesting sight all of a sudden. "I tried to wake you, but you wouldn't. So then I brought you onto the couch and sat with you, and seemed to calm down after that." Gray finished with a hint of nervousness on his voice. I only stared into nowhere. Gray had helped me? Maybe there was more to him than the antisocial, PMSing, idiot I thought of him.

"Thanks…" I muttered.

"For what?" He asked, tilting his head. Gee, he was naïve wasn't he?

"For last night, for helping me last night." I said, blushing, and lowered my head.

"Do you want to tell me about it" He asked; care woven, almost secretly, in his voice. Did he just ask me that? Did Gray Care? I was shocked, and regretted the fact that long ago I promised myself that I wouldn't tell anyone; except, my husband. I didn't like breaking promises, doing so only brought sadness.

"I-I'm sorry Gray, no. It's just something I-I would rather not share." I stuttered. He didn't need to know.

"Okay, but if you want, too; I suppose you know where to find me normally. I mean it's not like, no getting the last creampuff would make you, or anyone for that matter, cry in their sleep like that." That part struck me as sweet and I blushed like mad.

"Alright, get outta here, ya bastard." I finally shot playfully, not trying to clue him in to awkwardness I was now feeling. Gray shrugged and got up, slowly walking over to the door. "Hey, Gray?" I started.

"Yeah?" He said glancing back.

"…See you around." I muttered. Why did I just say that? It was like I was on auto-pilot and just flew into a wall. Did I like Gray? …How? …When? …My Head hurts!

Finally I collected myself and set to work cleaning up breakfast, all the while thinking about what my body and actions had said to Gray, in contrast to what my mouth didn't; or better yet, what my sub-conscience knew and I didn't.

I gathered my tools, and set out to my fields. Today was going to be tough, or so I thought. When I got down to my field I noticed all my crops were already harvested, I glanced over to the shipping bin and noticed a note on it that read:

**Dear Claire:**

**We were really sad when we heard about you accident so me and Stu already picked them so you wouldn't have to. Grandpa says to visit us when you can. **

**You're little sister, May**

Sweet little May. As I walked to my chicken shed I realized how more mature she had become since I moved in nearly three years ago. Now she was 11, and was she starting to grow! It seemed like every time you looked at her she grew another centimeter. Goddess I could only imagine how big she would be in a year's time. Stu had yet to show the same physical growth, he had also gained about the same mental capacity as his female "counterpart," beginning to be able to focus on more things than just on how to freak people (or animals) out. My cows seemed happy to have discovered this change in him.

Arriving at my chicken coop I was confronted with yet another note that read:

**Dear Claire:**

**Popuri heard about what happened yesterday, and insisted that we help. So we did! Your chickens have been fed; we took the eggs back to our house, you can pick them up later!**

**Your friends Popuri and Rick**

**PS: I love the neck bracelet idea you have going on! Mind if I borrow it?**

"Popuri…Rick…" The tow chicken farmers, despite being "excessive" at times were really good friends of mine. The leg bracelets mentioned were little elastic bead necklaces, each one spelling out the carrier chickens name. They also told my gender at a glance as well (blue beads for boy, pink for girl.) I had to admit, it was one of my better ideas.

Finally I trekked over to my barn, knowing that most likely it would be like the other two of my farm "areas," all ready taken care of.

I once again let my mind wonder to thoughts of how things have changed since I arrived in the small village called Mineral Town. However nothing seemed to jump to mind, instead what did was a heaping cauldron of indiscriminate memories and experiences from the past. Cliff collapsing, Ann's dad's saddest day, my first cow, building my deck…

I arrived at my barn and as expected there was yet another note on the door:

**Dearest Claire:**

**We heard about your accident through Elli and me and Cliff decided we should help you, so we took care of your animals for you! I may not look like it, but I feel I am actually pretty handy with a milker. BTW I enjoyed when you showed me how to that last year it was really fun! So anyway, we brought your milk back to the inn so come and get it when you get up and feel like. Then we'll have lunch or something for just us girls!**

**Bestest friend: Ann**

**Cliff**

The two had obviously signed it separately. I loved this village, and it apparently loved me back. I sighed as i walked into town. Maybe this broken arm thing wouldn't be so bad.

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**Travis: So this is the second chapter, it's a little shorter than I would have liked, but never the less; I feel that this chapter is old to enough to leave the nest that is my computer **_**sniffle**_**.****However this will probably be one of the chapters I revise if I ever do that.**

**Hikari: What are you saying about revisions? Your not really new to them. The first chapter, okay people out there, you probably wouldn't notice since Travis loves to update his stories late at night (that's when he writes best,) but even before any of you have a chance to see the new chapter; it's already been revised about four or five times (about ten last time,) within then space of an hour. Travis you are obsessive!**

**Travis: Isn't that a good thing when it comes to spelling? Anyway; vote, review, fave, love, hate, your choice.**


	3. Fall 3rd

**Seasons: People change with each passing one!**

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**Hikari: Alright welcome to level three of the Seasons experience! **

**Travis: Yes, welcome. Now down to business. These next few chapters (or at least this one,) will be focusing more on the friendship structure in Mineral Town, For those wanting to see Gray and Claire getting together into this chapter, sorry! Those two will get together later, or will they? Maybe Claire will go after...Anyway I might add a little fluff between them. BTW I find it most critical to find out from my readers which people they would like to see in Mineral Town, I mean for example I could write about xxxxx, but if no one likes xxxxx…can you see where I'm going? SO PLEASE TAKE THE FIFTEEN SECONDS IT TAKES, GO ANSWER MY POLL!!**

**Hikari: And now for the fan mail/reviews:**

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**SunshineGirlx3: Thank you for reading. Sorry, but I don't think I'll reveal who it is until a little later in the story, details on why in the summary. I must thank you though, because of your HM story I got that little burst of that Harvest Moon theme that I needed to write this, and let me tell you, I was hooked once again! My birthday was recently and I spent pretty much all of it on Harvest Moon. So once again thank you for reading/reviewing!**

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**Fall 3rd  
**

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_**Ann's PoV, 7:37am Fall 3**__**rd**_

"See ya, Ann!" he said, shutting the door behind him. Maybe it was just me or maybe it was a fact that Cliff was in fact getting up and out earlier than usual. "Huh" I sighed, putting down another mug. Sometimes I just wanted to punch the oblivious dolt; no matter what I seem to do he never seemed to want to acknowledge the fact that I wanted to be more than just friends! I mean what do I have to do push him down and force myself upon him?

I continued to mull the thought over as I proceeded to complete washing the beer mugs from last night's rounds.

_**Slam**_

"Ann!' I looked up and saw Claire standing next to the door. If anyone could brighten up my day it was definitely Claire.

"Oh Claire how are?" I asked.

"Well asides from this" she said, lifting up her broken arm. "I've been fine"

"It's like Mary is always saying" I started, as Claire took a seat on one of the barstools in front of the counter. "If you guys keep fighting one or both of you is going to end up getting to get killed. And look, you came damn close yesterday!"

"I know, but he can get me so mad sometimes; so what's eating you?" She asked.

"Who says anything is?" I asked trying to put her off, she didn't need my problems, especially now.

"You do Ann!" she started. "Look at you, you look nervous, you've been cleaning that same mug since I've come in (usually it only takes me a matter of seconds to clean one,) and most of all, look at your braid" she finished, pointing to my hair. Instead of being on my back it was over my shoulder lying in front. I am impulsive about putting my hair behind my shoulders. I sighed.

"All right you win" I relented. "It's about Cliff; he never seems to notice me in the way I want him to, you know more than just friends."

"Hm, why don't you invite him to go see the moon with you on the 13th? Ask him if he might want to start dating."

"Damn it, Claire! You're right." She always came up with good plans when the circumstance required.

"Yeah, I know…" She said, scratching her head. "But I still don't know who I'll be going with…then again I probably just stay home and watch the new movie I got in."

"Well…" I trailed off, I was going to offer to bring Claire along but then I remembered about the sleepover tonight. "Hey Claire, you free tonight?"

"I suppose so…" she said, putting her finger to her chin in an effort to emphasize the process of thought. "Ok, why?"

"Well I was gonna tell you sooner, but I didn't get to it so…" I began. "Popuri, Karen, Elli, and I are going to have a sleepover tonight. So I was wondering…would you be interested?"

"Sure, but only on one condition. We do it at my house." This was quite the reasonable request, because last time we had a sleepover Karen brought a ton of wine and Claire had gotten considerable slammed that night, but that's a story for another time. All of us wanted to be somewhere where we'll be taken care of when were hammered, whether we knew it or not; I guess Claire is no different.

"Okay, I was actually going to ask that next." I laughed.

"Now Ann; about the Milk you got earlier. You can keep it if you want." She said, spurring up memories in my mind of that morning when I woke Cliff up to go help Claire on her farm; he got up, but about ten minutes later. I remember when Claire first taught me how to milk a cow, about a year ago. She had wanted help on her farm, because of the fall harvest. So one morning I showed up asked what I could do to help. Next thing I knew I was in the barn sitting next to a cow and watching Claire milk it.

Claire was unique in the farming community in Mineral Town. She milked her cows by hand without the aid of a milker 'more free' or something. What ever the reason was didn't matter, she was damn good at it (and could firmly demonstrate that point if you were ever in doubt.)

"Oh, Claire I could never; you need the money" I said, finally.

"Don't worry about it Ann, with the amount of cash I'm going to collect on my crops I won't miss a few bottles; so go ahead I insist. Besides, if you don't take them, I have to take them home." She said, giving her innocent smile and obviously gesturing in the direction of her arm.

"Ok, fine missy." I sighed in defeat.

"Thank you, Ann" She cried, embracing me in one of her hugs. "So, when should I expect you guys tonight?"

"Well…" I thought. "I suppose Karen will be getting off about four and Elli by five. So I guess maybe around six, six-thirty." I said as Claire seemed to note it down in her mind.

"Ok, Thanks Ann I'll be seeing you!" Claire said as she turned to run out.

"See ya" I said, waving. "Thanks for suggesting that thing with Cliff"

"Yeah no problem" She called back. "My pleasure, Bye" She then walked out and I was alone yet again to spurn anger upon the beer mugs before me.

_**Claire's PoV, 10:48am**_

_**Slam**_

The door clashed as I shut it. "Oh; hello Claire how are you, asides from your arm?" a woman's voice sounded from the kitchen.

"I'm doing fine Lillia; how are you doing?" I said, redirecting the question. Lillia managed the chicken farm as it's primary owner, all purchases went through her; you had to admire the woman, considering she was sick nearly every day of her (at least) adult life. Yet she always seemed to keep moving.

"Oh, I'm managing. With the weather being as nice as it has, I've even been able to get outside a bit recently" She said, slicing into a head of cabbage as she did.

"That's wonderful" I replied, handing her a plate she had pointed to.

"Yes, but I would doubt that is why you're here; Claire." I felt as if I was being put on the spot. Karen was right it was indeed very hard to tell whether or not she was being serious or just playing around sometimes

"Well actually," I began "Rick and Popuri came to my farm earlier and took care of my chickens, and I just wanted to let you guys know that you could keep those eggs; as payment and my thanks for performing said help." Lillia looked a little surprised and then said.

"Oh, well thank you Claire. I was wondering where those extra eggs came from this morning; I guess I got my answer now." She finished, chuckling to herself a little bit.

"Well, that's about it. I would appreciate it if you could also tell Rick and Popuri that I said thanks" I said, beginning towards the door.

"I will dear, have a nice day." She said as I exited the medium-sized house.

_**Slam**_

Once again the door went back into place and I began to walk home.

_**Gray's PoV, 5:39pm**_

Yesterday had been eventful to say the least…however today was the opposite. It was boring, and let's face it, awkward. The whole day Grandpa insisted that I go and tell Claire that I was sorry for calling her short, because, as he put it, it was the fuse for the firecracker that went off yesterday afternoon. So finally I left the inn to apologize, because otherwise the old man's voice would keep ringing in my head until I did. '…you should apologize, boy. Because when you give it second thought, it maybe to late…' that simple sentence had rung continuously ever since I got off four and a half hours ago.

The walk to Claire's farm was quiet and peaceful, two things I enjoyed. People might see me as cold and indifferent, but damn it, I enjoyed beautiful surroundings just as much as any other person. The trees were starting to turn their colors, reflecting the theme of the season, change. People organized themselves to be ready for winter's cold winds and snow, while others grew and harvested the remains of the crops they would need to last them through out the winter and into spring.

As I approached Claire's farm I stopped, but only for a second, to notice the small sign painted red that read 'Strawberry Garden,' the name of Claire's farm. Everyone in mineral town knew of Claire's adoration towards strawberries. She specifically designated a part of the field she worked on as a haven for little red fruits. She even had Gotz come and construct a small greenhouse over the little bushes last year, and from what I hear will have him come yet again this year to do so. To say that Claire liked strawberries would be an understatement, Claire worshiped strawberries.

I stepped on to her ranch and looked around; I immediately heard a humming emanating from a row of crops that stood about three feet tall, and the top of a certain blond farmer's head. "Claire! You out there" I called, walking towards the spot I suspected her to be in. She stood up and slowly looked up at me.

"Hey, Gray" She said as I continued to step closer, thinking as I went about how to go about apologizing. "Um, Watch where your-"

_**Thwack**_

Before I knew what had happened I was on the ground and staring up at the now-fading sky, the left side of my face hurting. "Are you ok?" Claire began. "I tried to tell you to look out, but I guess I was too late" she said, picking up an object at my feet, her hoe. Wait her hoe?

"Did I seriously just fricken walk into that?" I yelled. Clutching my face in a now-vain understanding of what Claire was trying to tell me. How could I not notice that!

"Here" Claire began, reaching her good arm out; I grabbed it. "Let's go get you an ice pack." Before I could object, however, I was being dragged into Claire's house for a second time this week. "So what were you doing out here?" she asked quizzically, setting me down in one of the dining room chairs. "I mean it's not like you to come out here all alone like this." She finished as she came back with the retrieved ice pack.

"Well, actually…" I began, as I lowered the brim of my hat. "I came to apologize for yesterday; for calling you short. After talking to my Grandfather, it seemed like the right thing to do." I said, though muttering the last few words.

"Hey, neither of us died, right? There's practically no reason to apologize for it." She said leniently.

"But your arm." I said raising my voice.

"What about it." She began, coldly. "It was mainly my fault anyway, I attacked you." Her fault what does she mean by that? Are her meds acting up again? I still have to talk to Elli about that. Anyway…

"No." I said, sounding irritated as I did. "It's mine; I came out and yelled at you."

"No, it's mine. I could have just walked away after you called me short." She said also gathering an irritated sound to her voice.

"I shouldn't have called you short." I said, standing up. Claire's next move surprised me. She hung her head down, and simply pointed to the door. She stayed silent and I got the hint. I quickly and quietly left.

As I made my way back to the inn I couldn't help but feel more confused than I was when I started this little trip. What had caused Claire to change so rapidly? I couldn't keep the moment out of my mind.

_**Claire's PoV, 6:02 PM**_

Everything was set. All the food I had to spare was lain out on my table. All the blankets I had (6) were ready at a moment's notice, with matching pillows. And my collection of DVD's was also lain out for easy access. Everything is accounted for except…

_**Knock Knock Knock**_

"Come in" I called to last thing need for the little sleep over tonight, friends.

"Claire! How are you?" Screamed one of the entering girls. I then saw a flash of pink and before I knew it I was on the floor.

"Popuri! Wow, girl I never knew I could move so fast." Another voice, that of Karen's, said. I opened my eyes, which I had closed after I got sacked by the pink flash, opened to reveal the visual existence of the village's resident bubblegum-haired girl; Popuri.

"Claire, I was worried about you!" Popuri screamed even though our faces were less than a foot apart. This was going to be a long night. I was on the ride and now I had no choice but to ride it out to the end.

"I'm fine Popuri." I said reassuring her. "I'll be fine by the end of winter." I looked around and suddenly noticed that one of the expected guests was not here. "Where's Elli?" I asked pushing Popuri off me at the same time.

"Oh, she couldn't come. Ellen isn't feeling well again." Karen said. "But hey there's still the four of us to have fun.

"Ok, one last question before we get started. Why couldn't Mary come? I mean she always seems to come to these things." I was puzzled.

"Well," Ann began. "She, despite the shy thing she is, was going to surprise Gray at the Inn by bringing him some baked corn"

"That's quite the step for her" I said. "Alright let's party."

Everything would be going fine; until, that was, the wine was passed out and the rounds started to be made. Anything and everything past that is a blur in my mind. It's one of those things where, if the next morning, someone else told you that you put a lampshade on your head and danced around; you would probably believe them. The next morning I would come to regret, for the hangover is a untamed beast to be feared at any distance.

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**Travis: So yeah, nothing really exciting in this chapter. However, the next chapter will probably pick up a bit. So time an author's notes, if you care: The crops in the story will be modeled after the ones in A Wonderful Life, that is, most will grow in multiple seasons; some (like the strawberries) will be modeled after my experiences. **

**As a final note I'm looking for pre-runner suggestions. The pre-runner I'm talking about is the item I put at the first line (Ex: Seasons: People change with each passing one,) or at least that's what I call it. **


	4. Sleeping in the Chest

_**Seasons: Now M rated!**_

Kiminochi: Thanks for reviewing, both times. To be honest I wasn't thinking of detailing the sleepover, I'm not really going to detail a lot of this one because there will definitely more sleepovers to come, and I will detail most (if not all) of them.

SunshineGirlx3: I guess we agree where Gray is concerned, but I am trying to flush out a different "Claire" than what most people are used to. I'll see what I can do about adding an author's comments page to my personal website to maybe give my opinion related to her. I should have that up by the 5th chapter.

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**Sleeping in the Chest!**

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_**Gray's PoV, 6:48PM Fall 3**_

I sat thinking about what just a single day's time had brought into my life. From the fight to, the trip home, the panties, the crying, the breakfast, and most recently the small "argument" that I had had; with one person, Claire, of all people. It wasn't even Thursday yet and already all of this crazy shit had happened, it was all a guess in my mind as to which of us was going to end up dead by the end of the week.

One thing still bothered me about earlier when Claire simply lowered her head and pointed to the door, of course I knew what she meant, but it was unlike Claire to not defend herself; hell, she does it even if she really didn't have any reason to do so. Could it have something to do with the way she was crying, but then what caused that? There was definitely something buried under the façade that is Claire's happy smile.

_**Knock Knock Knock**_

Someone was at the door. "Come in." I said; who could this be? "Mary?!" I saw the petite raven-haired girl standing in the now-open doorway.

"Um…Hi?" she started. Nervously clutching something in her hands. "I…um heard about what happened yesterday."

"Oh, you did?" I replied watching my tone as best as I could, for even when I was trying to be nice I could often come off as being angry.

"Yeah…and I thought I'd just come by and give you this," she said handing me the package. "It's some baked corn, I figure things must be a little tight right now, so…" She faded; I got the queue and immediately picked up.

"Thank you; I love baked corn, but really…it's not too bad; the situation I mean."

"Well I thought would just bring that by, I have to be getting along now. So…" She trailed off nervously as she headed to the door.

"Alright I'll be seeing you…" I said smiling. Mary closed the door and once again I was left to ponder the facts of my life. However, my mental workload increased as I realized in how much of a hurry Mary was in. It was completely unlike her to be so…preoccupied, I believe is the word I'm looking for. She always left plenty of time for anything that was needed. Only once in a blue moon would she end up screwing up her schedule. This was odd, or maybe I was just paranoid; or better yet, both.

_**Claire's PoV, 10:32 PM**_

I had stepped out for a bit to get away from the excitement that was the now near-riot stage party. It felt wonderful, to come outside on a clear night and stare at the stars on the deck that I myself built in front of my house. It extended from near my door and trimmed the outside of the house in front. It was a vast accomplishment for me and many a time that winter I would find myself getting in bed around 3PM. Finally on winter 23 of my third year, it was complete, taking just over three weeks to produce. After that, I was personally in awe at Gotz's ability to put up things like this in three or four days, then again he's got god-knows-how-many years behind him. However my deck was mine, and cost me about 40000 less G than Gotz was offering to do it for.

"Claire? Ah there you are." I turned around, it was Ann. "Claire, You've got to see this! Karen is dancing with one of your lamps. It's so fricken funny." Ann was drunk.

"No thanks Ann I think I'll stay out here a little longer." Preferably until Karen falls asleep, I thought. Ann shrugged

"Suit yourself, but your missing some seriously funny shit in here." Ann said disappearing into my house, closing the door with a loud bang. I walked over and sat down on the bench in front of my house, another thing I had built along with the deck. Something no one thought I would complete without Gotz's help. It was something that even Mary had thought would be impossible for me to do.

Mary…I wonder how she was doing right now, gee… I haven't talked to her in about a week now, and now this thing with Gray. Suppose I'll stop in sometime tomorrow and say 'hi.' I sighed then went back to quietly watching the stars.

_**12:08 AM**_

I sat for a while. Staring, staring …ok maybe I do little too much staring. It was however, getting quite chilly, so I decided it would be a good time to go inside. Opening the door I noticed, not the expected group of plastered female friends, but instead I was greeted with the sight of Ann, Popuri, and Karen piled on top of each other asleep. Popuri was on top of Ann, who was resting upon Karen's stomach. I was a pretty funny sight, one of things you need to see to grasp the full atmosphere surrounding it.

Sighing, I began the task of turning off the lights in the house; I visited the bathroom, changed into my bed clothes, and sat on my bed brushing my hair out. I was lucky it was only my arm and a few of my ribs that were broken. Sitting around I realized how badly I could have hurt myself just about two days ago. How badly would it have hurt me economically if I had broken my leg or my hip? Especially considering it was the fall season, I needed all the help I could get, even without being disabled in some way. Or worse yet what if I had…ouch, I hit a knot in my hair.

I finished, and slipped into bed turning of the last light, my little table lamp, and settled down for the night. However, even as I passed into sleep, one thought remained; What if…what if I had…died, would anyone care? Would anyone grieve about my loss? Sure everyone would be shocked, but would they care; or continue on like nothing happened? Would they care…if I died?

_**5:04 AM**_

_Thomas: We gather here today to lie to rest a beloved resident our town…Claire._

_??: Who?_

_??: That farmer girl._

_Gray: Don't you people remember, she was your fr-_

…I woke up. Not pleasantly either; somehow I had ended up half on and half off my bed. My night beforehand had been full of anything, but nice peaceful rest; just short little dozes that came and went with the approaching daylight; which was still amounting little to nil.

My ribs and arm hurt, but it wasn't anything new. In my childhood I had so many broken bones, it stunted my growth when I was 17. I am 5 foot 2. But I Digress.I sat up and gathered today's outfit, a pair of overalls, a blue flannel shirt, and a pair of panties I refuse to describe.

Ann and the others were still asleep, and by the looks of it would be so for a long while; caused by the blatant fact that they had exhausted all three cases of the wine I had bought just the day before.

I finished getting dressed and headed outside, and was greeted by one of my best friends, the rain. I welcomed/loved the rain; it saved me a day of the tiresome chore of watering my crops.

I collected the few sweet potatoes that had matured overnight; tossing them into the shipping bin, before heading to my barn. On them way I enjoyed the light rain that was falling onto my lone farm.

The previous summer had been riddled with drought, at one point it hadn't rained for almost three weeks. Luckily for me (and the village as well) the river didn't dry up or we would have had real problems. Kind of makes me wonder though...what would have happened had the river dried up? Food for thought? I think so.

My cows were up and mooing their morning song, which always seemed to be just a little bit sad sounding when it rained. When I reached the barn I stepped in, and out of the increasingly heavy rain. Immediately my first cow, Bessie, came trotting over and mooed happily as I petted her nose. Bessie was the first of the five cows that I had, and was a champion in more ways than one.

Bessie won the cow festival the first time she was entered, and it seems that wherever she went the rest of my cows would soon follow her. Even now as all the rest of my cows gathered near me, it seemed to a living testament to the greatness that was my cow.

I went about my usual morning routine; minus the use of one arm, and without the ability to bend down anywhere except at the knees. I finished in my barn, and then slowly made my way across the field to my chicken barn. I entered the small shack and immediately was greeted to the sight of all eight of my chickens; all happily clucking away, thankful for not being outside in the rain. Each of them laying an egg overnight. I filled each chicken's feed bin with the usual amount of feed. As I filled the last bin the shack's door opened to reveal the day outside and the person who had opened it; Gray.

"Hey Claire" He said.

"Hey Gray. What's up?" I started.

"Doug wants Ann down at the Inn. So here I am, because your door is locked." "I was just going back to my house; I just got done with taking care of my animals, so let's go."

So both Grey and me ran towards my house trying desperately to keep from getting drenched, but alas to no avail.

I unlocked my door, stepped in, and stopped in my tracks. Apparently I had overlooked the fact that Karen was, in fact, not wearing a shirt, or a bra for that matter. More over the fact, she had recently rolled over to reveal her very full chest. **Thump** "Grey?"

_**8:21AM**_

Grey finally started to come to about half hour later. "What happened?" He asked sounding dazed.

"Congratulations, boy scout. One look at boobs and your down for the count." I teased.

"Shut up...Where is everybody?"

"Well," I Began. "I got them up about 20 minutes ago. Popuri rushed out after glancing at the clock, Karen slowly left looking quite hung over. And Ann left shortly there after."

"Do-does anyone know why I uh..." He spat.

"Why you what?" I could have stopped there, but I decided to have some fun.

"You know...when I saw Karen's...um chest." Ah well, I was looking for "Boobs" or something of the sort, but the blush he had just given me made even the aforementioned moment priceless.

"No one except you and me" I assured him. Grey sighed then asked:

"What did you tell them had happened?"

"I told them that you had come looking for Ann and while you were waiting for her to get up you dozed off." I said sitting down on one of my dining room chairs. "What about Ann?"

"What about her?"

"Did she say anything about me?"

"She said not to bother waking you up if I can help it; cause you bite people's heads off when you wake up, and it's not like you have work today anyway."

"Um...yeah, thanks for the cover up; but as it happen I do have something to do today." He said trying to act proud of himself for finding eight and a half hours worth of crap to do.

"Really" I said, sounding interested. "Like going to see Mary?"

"How'd you know?"

"Well duh, you're always at the library on Thursdays...WOW!"

"What?"

"Do you realize how easy it would be if someone were out to kill you."

"Aw, Goddess thanks for the feedback." Grey retorted.

"Goddess nothing, is fact." I said, while munching on the grapes I had put out on the table.

"I don't get you at all..." Grey said, getting up.

"Do you really not get me, or have you made no attempt in the first place?" Grey only looked at me and shrugged. Then he slowly opened my door and stepped outside.

I knew it...he doesn't even want to get to know me.

_**Gray's PoV, 8:30 AM**_

I stepped into the library. As I approached the front desk I could see that Mary was quite preoccupied. She was writing on a piece of paper, in the form of a letter (Mary herself had taught me about the different writing formats there were.) As I approached she was still writing, probably a letter to some other library in a town that I've never even heard of. "Hey Mary." I said, quietly. However quietly didn't save her from being startled and nearly falling off her chair.

"Oh, hi Grey" she said trying covertly to hide the letter she was just writing. "Um...how are you today?" She stuttered.

"Better now that you're awake." I said laughing.

All through the day I couldn't get past the sneaking suspicion that Mary was trying to hide something from me.

Claire's PoV, 6:17PM

I was finally finished. It took several hours, but I had finally finished cleaning up the mess from last night. I sat on the couch and stared at the box full of random crap that was left at my house. The contents included everything from earrings to a lone bra (That wasn't mine.) Now the fun part began, tomorrow, when it stopped raining. Since the morning earlier, the rain had kept at a steady pace and showed no signs of stopping now.

I turned on my TV and was reminded of why I was in the process of getting satellite television, four channels. Who in the world has a TV with only four channels, besides me?

I couldn't do anything about it though until the guy came on Saturday. For now I had nothing to do, which wasn't probably the worst thing for a person in my condition, but God damned, I was bored. Something had to be done; it's moments like these that make me wish I was a mom. What am I 24? Most girls my age already had their innocence taken from them by now, either by their husbands or one of their random sporadic boyfriends they've had over the years. Big deal!

I was waiting for someone to call a husband, and nothing was going to change that. I was getting concerned however; this whole village only had a handful of available bachelors, and no one seemed right for me. I mean I have five options; Cliff, Trent, Kai, Rick, and Grey.

Trent is oblivious. Kai is looking for nothing but sex. Rick is far too judgmental. Cliff is well...Ann's territory; mind you I'd rather have two friends than a boyfriend, and a worst enemy. Finally Gray...Gray is...

I tried to put Gray into words, but I realized I couldn't seem to do so. It seemed that because of the tribulations of the past few days, my entire definition of Grey had changed completely. To the point of where I couldn't find words to describe him right now.

I sat for a while, thinking of nothing else in particular. Just going over what happened, just letting it sink in. No matter what though I don't think I'd ever consider Grey as someone I'd like to spend the rest of my life with. I mean, yeah he's kind of cute, but me and him?

As I thought even further there was nothing anymore telling me that I shouldn't cross him out anymore as someone who couldn't possibly be a candidate. Just about the pure fact that he had helped me at home; even after I had attacked.

My mind and I were now in a state of disagreement, and I know it's going to take a long time for both to find a parallel point to work on. It could take days for that to happen. My mind can be a very troubling place to be on more than a couple of occasions.

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Travis: Well that's it for this time. Though this chapter is a little shorter than I would have liked (and don't get me started on how long it took me to release it.) Some will also notice that I have upped the rating to "M," this is simply to safe especially when I don't know myself where the story will turn next. On a lighter note a majority of this chapter was written at school on my TI-84 SE calculator for those of you who were wondering, or if any of you happen to be calc geeks like I am.

Hikari: So hopefully you'll get back onto a regular release schedule?

Travis: Yes, hopefully. Look for chapter 5 around the 20th. Depending on how much HM: ToT messes up my schedule.


	5. Just a Day

**Seasons: Rather hard on the minds of children**

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**Chapter 5: Just a day**

_"Many years ago a tragedy of fatal outcome. The whole village wept as one for a friend. Now she is remembered by two people; for one she was a lover, the other a mother."_

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_**Ann's PoV, 7:39 AM Fall 5th**_

Even before getting out of bed this morning I knew what day it was, deduced from the reason of complete silence. More often than not pots and pans of all assortments would be banging around, in preparation for the morning brunch. But not today; today is fall 5th. The 21st anniversary of my mother's passing away.

Already I knew daddy had gone up to Mother's hill, the large door at the entrance always slammed shut causing a shockwave of sound to permeate the large structure of the inn; this, and every time, causing me to stir in the mornings.

_**Gray's PoV, 7:45 AM**_

...zzz...zzz...

Hikari: Um, Travis, you do realize he's sleeping, right?

Travis: Unfortunately, yes. We'll have to come back unless one of us tries to wake him up, and it isn't going to be me.

Hikari: As much as I'd like to, I'd better not. The doctor told me that avoiding excessive bleeding is good for me.

Travis: Then we move on?

Hikari: Indeed.

_**Claire's PoV, 7:50 AM**_

After another night of no sleep I should have been happy to sit down and watch TV. Not! Tomorrow's weather? Rainy. Monday's weather? FUCKING LATE SEASON HURRICANE!

Could we have picked a better time for this bullshit to have happened? What's next are my freaking cows going to sprout wings, fly around the barn, and land on me?

I was pissed. "Dislocated arm, animals, tons of crops; I just want to pull my hair out," I paused. "I can't even do that either." I was screaming into sobs at this point. "My hair is falling out; I can not flipping believe it, I am 24 and my fricken hair is falling out." Furthermore any natural luster my hair had disappeared, replaced by a dull sheen that would tip anyone in town off as to how I was doing. I swear to god if anyone even considers toying with me today I will kill them.

*Knock knock knock*

"Well look at that, dead man walking." I said, getting up and opening the door.

"Guuud morn-" A small spinney man began; I however, being all imperative, interrupted.

"Won!" I thundered. "Get your spinney ass off my property, or I swear to the Goddess of the harvest, your death shall be long and really fucking painful."

"V-V-V-very w-w-w-well!" Won said taking off faster then I've ever seen someone run before. Then it sinks in.

"Oh great, and now I'm PMSing at the neighbors!"

"You're doing what to your neighbors?" A deep male voice asked. It was Saibara, Grey's instructor and grandfather.

"Oh, um what are you doing here?" I said, for some reason trying to play coy. Hoping to Goddess, Yes the same one I was just swearing to, that he hadn't heard my lovely outburst at Won. Fat chance.

"Why wouldn't I be here?" He began. "The entire village probably heard you just now."

"Great" I muttered under my breath.

"Its kind obvious something is bothering you" Saibara continued. "Would you, perhaps, like to talk about it?" He said, his old face turning soft and understanding.

"I'm just having a bad week." I replied. "Have you seen the weather?"

"Aye, a fine storm be coming."

"Fine for you maybe." I retorted; Saibara roused an eyebrow. "Sorry..."

"Try not to let it get to you to much." Saibara started walk back to his shop.

Finally I added: "I'll try." Saibara turned his head and nodded, then disappeared from my view.

I sat down on my bench swing and gently rocked myself back and forth trying to calm my mind. It always seemed to work, and luckily this time was no different.

I needed a plan of action for this hurricane that was coming. I would need extra fodder and feed for the animals. I once again was angry when I realized that the neither Poultry farm, nor Yodel ranch would be open for about another three hours. Now I needed something to do for that amount of time. Normally I would go pound on some rock, or find myself a nice stump to chop up. But right now that was obviously out of the question, because of my arm.

Then I remembered just another little tidbit of my day. Today was Stu's birthday. Luckily I had already gotten Stu his present; a book on the bugs in the area. While Stu's interest in creating havoc was now (somewhat) diminished, he still occasionally enjoyed bug hunting. This made my job slightly easier. Except the fact that I had yet another stop on what seemed to be a trip to the ends of my sanity. Not that I didn't mind spending time with Mineral Town's younger residents. It's just that I'm kinda having a bad week, but what are you going to do? All I can practically say is that: so far Fall is looking to turn into an even worse mess than the Summer before it.

"Goddess forbids anything more happens to me this month, for I might go insane." I thought aloud.

"You're going where? Please tell me you're not leaving us!" A small girl's voice exclaimed. My mood changed entirely when I turned to see May. "Only if you come see me more."

"I try" She yelled playfully. "I could if Grandpa wasn't constantly getting me to do stuff" she finished, sitting next to me on the bench. "Stuff like what?" I questioned, enjoying this momentary break in my soon-to-be-full day.

"Oh, pretty much everything you can associate with ranching. Feeding, grooming, you'd know; you own some animals." She said, staring off towards my barn as she did.

"Guess I would, wouldn't I?" I replied, in a daze.

"Yeah so since last season when Grandpa took that fall last Summer he's been unable to do very much." May said as she played with her incredibly long ponytail. May had let her hair grow out and it was now longer than Ann's, coming to the shorter girl's ankles rather than her waist.

"Hey, Claire are you feeling alright? You look a little out of it." May said, bringing me back to reality.

"Oh, sorry May. I've just been having no luck this past week, and if you've seen the weather forecast it seems that next week won't be a walk in the park either." I said, my vision seeking something unusual to stare at.

"Yeah, I heard about the hurricane, but supposedly it's going to be a weak one." She said, staring along with me.

"I wouldn't trust that. Just knowing with what horrible luck I've been having lately, my field will probably be washed out." I said, sighing.

"Aw, don't say that Claire" she said, turning and hugging me for all it was worth. "Your fields will do fine, and if they don't you still have plenty of animal produce to hang onto."

I sat there for a couple of seconds before I finally turned, and gave her a hug back saying: "Thanks May you're the best little sister I've ever had."

"Hey don't mention it." May then jumped up and off the bench.

"Leaving?" I asked.

"No just getting up, hey Claire?" The young girl started.

"Yes May?" I asked, playing along.

"Do you think you could teach me how to make ice cream? Please?" She asked, while pulling my good arm.

"Sure May, sure." I said, while sitting up. "How could I refuse to a sweet little girl?" I laughed.

"Better watch it Claire, I'm not so little anymore!" May said, laughing and pulling me towards the door.

"You sure aren't; and someday you'll be a beautiful young woman." I said to which May blushed and asked:

"Really? Will I be as pretty you are?"

"Well if these seasons keep up you won't have to worry about that." I said, unlocking and opening my front door.

"Why's that?" May asked; with that cute little smile that only kids can muster.

"Stress causes premature wrinkling" I added, effectively alleviating my young friend's question.

"Aw, Claire. Don't worry about it. You'll be fine after this hurricane passes in a couple of days."

"Hm…" I began. "Well let's get making that ice cream, huh?"

_**40 minutes later...**_

"Alright May, it's almost ready. Can you get our spoons and bowls ready?" I said, looking at the mixture sitting in a bag inside a plastic bucket. May quickly complied, retrieving spoons and bowls for both of us.

"Hey Claire?" May began, from my dining area.

"Yes May?" I answered.

"After the ice cream could we play some of your video games?"

"Sure May, what games were you thinking about?"

"Oh, what was it...um, oh how about Super Smash Bros.?"

"Geez you love that game don't you?" I continued.

"Yep" she playfully responded.

"Alright," I began. "The ice cream is ready May bring me your bowl." I said, retrieving the ice cream from the ice bucket.

"You always make delicious ice cream Claire that's why I wanted to learn from you." May mentioned a barely noticeable blush on her small face.

"Why thank you May it's a recipe that my mother taught to me." I said, setting down our dishes on the table, as May turned out a chair and sat down.

"Your Mom sounds like a cool person Claire," May began then paused, whispering this last part. "...unlike mine..."

"May..." I counseled. "I bet your Mom would be great, she just wasn't ready for what having a child would require." May was staring contently while I continued my lecture. "Besides I think you'd agree that being here is much better than having to live in the city. In the city people are cold and indifferent; nobody walks around and says 'Hi' to anybody. They just pass by looking like they have something to do, but they really don't." May was still watching, occasionally taking down a spoonful of ice cream. "Don't get me wrong the city is a fun place to hang out, but kinda in moderation. Like candy; it's delicious occasionally, but have too much and you'll end up with a stomachache worse than Jeff's." I finished, chuckling just slightly as I bit into the frozen dessert in front of me.

"Claire what do you mean by 'what having a child would require?'"

"Well May, contrary to what some people will believe, it is hard work raising a child. I had a friend in high school that had a kid; she had to drop out school."

"What's that mean?" May asked pausing.

"Dropping out?"

"Yeah."

"It means you quit something, like in this case high school. And let me tell you something I had a dead end job even after acing high school; if you don't complete high school there's no way you can do anything in the city." I finished up, taking another bite of my ice cream; May had finished her's and was now intently listening to everything I had to say.

"What happened to your friend Claire?" She asked, obviously wrapped up in what I was telling her.

"After she dropped out, she and her family moved, I haven't heard from her ever since."

"Oh that's so sad." May said, I nodded.

Reality was that my friend committed suicide, but how would I describe that to May? It was after she found that she couldn't qualify for some high school equivalence degree. Hung herself in the middle of the night. What a shock that was, going to school that morning. The school was called into assembly, I'll never forget that morning. I remember sitting in that seat in our performance theater, and hearing the principal announce her death. Saddest thing was that she was sort of not accepted in the school. Nobody seemed to really care; I even heard some make vulgar remarks, such as "At least she had the decency to not blow her brains out and get blood all over the carpet." It was so sad, even the guy who knocked her up couldn't remember who she was a week and a half after the incident; all the while it was through the school that he had moved on and was now banging some other chick.

"Yeah, it was." I finally finished; both my personal and my ice cream. "Alright, let's clean up then we can play some Smash Bros." I said picking up both dishes and carried them to the sink. I began to the dishes as May sat down on my couch and waited for the moment when I finished the dishes and came to sit down next to her. "Alright are we ready?" I asked rhetorically.

"Did you get any new characters since the last time I was here?"

"You mean when you totally kicked Stu's butt? Unfortunately no." I told her, plugging in a second controller and turning on my Gamecube. "But you wanna know what?" I asked, smiling."

"Sure." May replied.

"This Winter I'll be looking into getting a Wii; you know the new game system I told you about. And I'm going to get Super Smash Bros. Brawl with it, how's that sound to you?"

"It sounds great Claire," May quickly replied. "Will you invite me over to play when you get it?"

"Sure thing May; you and Stu both."

_**Claire's PoV, 11:12 AM**_

"Oh, man you beat me." I said, laughing. "You're really good at this for someone of your age; you know that May?" I finished sitting up on the couch. May looked up at me from the floor where she was sitting.

"I know." May replied, again showing a faint blush. I found it adorable when May blushed. Maybe it's just the way I look at things.

"Hey May," I began. "I need to do a couple things today, would you like to come with?"

"Aw can't we play some more?"

"Sorry the hurricane that's coming means I need to stock up on animal medicine and that kind of stuff."

"Oh, OK then, sure I'll come with you!" May replied. "You'll probably need help anyway because of your arm." She smiled again.

"I guess your right." I smiled, getting up and putting on my shoes. May followed, putting on her small slip-ons. We stepped out and into the warm Fall day, then began to walk towards the Poultry farm.

"So Claire? What do we need from the chicken farm?"

"Well, since I have 10 chickens, I figure I'll need about a dozen bottles of the chicken medicine; then I'll need about ten units of the chicken feed." (Travis A/N: That's what I figure it would take to feed those chickens for about a week, considering when I look at some of the games that some of those piles look as big as, or bigger, than the chickens themselves.)

**Gray's PoV, 11:45 AM**

"Hey, boy! Go take your break!" Yelled my Grandfather, basically meaning I have half an hour before he begins yelling at my "sorry ass" again. Today I had decided upon taking a walk around town as the form of my break today. It would give me the chance to think about things, including one particular blonde farmer girl that, for the life of me, I couldn't get off my mind.

As I walked down the road towards the library I began thinking. Why was it that I couldn't get her out of my mind? Even the sight of Karen's…, an image forever more burned into my mind, took a non-existent backseat to things surrounding her. What was most disturbing was the fact about how fast this had happened. We had gone from enemies to me not being able to get her out of my head in less than three days.

I wasn't exactly sure on how to approach this situation. Sure, she was a girl, and a very fine looking one I could admit. But I had Mary, I thought me and my brain had an agreement on that. Or did I have Mary? Why exactly was she in such a hurry the other night? Why am I asking myself all these questions?

Truth was I had utterly no idea what I was thinking. I don't even think a therapist could help me with all the questions I was confronting. I was nearing the supermarket now. Yet another trifling article that bugged me was if I could ever be around Karen again and keep a straight appearance.

The way Claire had "captured" my mind was, as I thought, peculiar. My mind would randomly slide to snapshot "memories;" or more even more disturbingly when I slept, would cause dreams of random fantasies come true; ones that revolve around fit, blonde farmer girls who live in Mineral Town.

Fortunately I'm not the kind of person who would sleep talk under any sort of pressure this lent itself to the fact that it was all in my head, and not the hottest item of gossip being tossed around the entirety of Mineral Town. At least last time I checked it wasn't. Goddess knows Manna would love to get her hands on a topic like: "Gray dreams perverted things about Claire in his sleep." How would I ever be able to live that one down? Now that I think of it, what would Claire do if she found out? Somehow the fact that she finding out and hurting her was something that came to mind often while I thought about this. Strangest thing about that was the emotion I felt from the "dream:" empathy. But holy shit why did I fucking care about what she thought of me?

I was in the square now and I turned right to go down the path to the inn where I might get a soda or something, then return to the shop. As I walked across the square I became increasing aware of my name being used in the group of gossiping girls that consisted of Anna, Manna, and Sasha. I was concerned for a second before I listened further, apparently one of them (didn't bother nor care to look up) was remarking about what horrible posture I had. I figured this came from Anna, Mary's mom; me and her had never hit it off because as she put it I was: "lowlife blacksmith outcast who would never accomplish anything more than appeasement;" I do believe those were the words she used when she thought I wasn't listening. I entered the inn.

"Hi, Gray." Said a girl's voice, a voice I immediately recognized.

"Hi...Claire" I said tensely spewing out her name. Claire immediately returned to Ann, as the two usually do when Claire stops in during the course of the day.

"So Ann, now that I've told you what's bugging me, what do you think is bugging Gray?" The blonde began turning my way in the stool she was sitting in.

"I don't know Claire...anything other than what it is that's usually bothering him is what you're getting at I suppose."

"Yeah, I am. Hey Gray, have a seat" she said, patting the seat next to her. "What's wrong?" she continued as I took her up on her offer for the seat.

"Nothing really just been thinking" I said to Claire, then turning to Ann: "Hey, Ann...could I get a Coke?"

"Sure" Ann replied, promptly going over to the tap with a glass.

"So what's eating your mind this time?" Claire continued from where she had left off.

"Nothing more than the usual" trying hard to put it into monotone.

"Bull, it's about Mary isn't it?" she asked, smiling her normal "sunny day" smile. I gave in albeit only a little.

"Yes, and No, I wouldn't like to talk about it; here at least." I not quite sure why I added that last part, but I immediately regretted it, as she came back with:

"We can talk about that after you get done with work today, at my house. I just want to add my two cents to this."

"Talk about what?" Ann came back asking, while letting the glass down in front of me.

"It's a hostage situation Ann," Claire began. "Gray's demanding the release of the book he left at my house." She finished, giggling throughout the entire phrase. One thing you had to admire about Claire was her reflexes.

A few minutes later I got up and got to the door before Claire called out: "Don't forget, tonight after work."

I nodded as I looked back, and then stepped out the door. The first thing I immediately thought was "What the fuck did I get myself into this time?"

**Gray's PoV, 3:58 PM**

"Alright boy, that's good enough for today, see you tomorrow." The old man said before switching off the furnace allowing it to cool down for the night.

"Whatever" I muttered, grabbing my coat and heading out the door. My mind seemed to respond to the fact that Claire had wanted to see me after my work and immediately lent itself to forcing me towards her farm. My concerns apparently weighed very little in comparison to the fact that Claire may, in fact, be trying to help me. I have to say it's a unique feeling somewhere between confusion, hope, and indigestion. But why was Claire trying to help me? Of all people.

Maybe she figures that if Mary and I get together, we'll move to the city and she won't have to see me again...no that can't be it. Maybe I should just ask her, save myself a headache.

**4:05 PM**

I entered Claire's farm to notice many things. Her windows had been covered with chicken wire, the usual furniture that resided on the deck was not there, and above all it seemed rather quiet for this time in the afternoon. Something broke the silence however; a loud banging in the distance told me that someone was in fact working. Soon the banging stopped and from behind the chicken shed Claire came out carrying a hammer in her right arm, her left housing a small box.

As she neared I could hear that she was humming a tune, not looking where she was going. "Hey Gra--ow" She tripped over a rock and fell next to her pond. I rushed over to see if everything was okay. She was laughing her face off.

"What's so funny?" I asked, tilting my head ever so slightly to the side. She reached out for my hand and I helped pull her up as she began:

"You and I are going to half to stop falling for each other or we're both liable to get hurt." I chuckled lightly to myself, and then followed Claire as she motioned towards her house. "So how was your day" she asked, casually, hanging up her coat.

"OK I guess." I said, again admiring her wall furnishings.

"You guess?" she said. I looked up and she quickly said: "Sorry, habit."

But I didn't wait for her to make more random small talk. "Why did you want to talk to me about Mary, and furthermore why do you care?"

"Well first of all I care because I can, and second I want to help you." She said firmly, pulling aside a stand of hair that had fell to the front of her face.

"But why?" I asked trying to squeeze the answer out of her.

"Because I feel I still owe you for staying with me the other night." Claire stated, shying away just a little bit.

"Alright what do you want to talk to me about?" I asked.

"Well you may not know this, but Mary is actually really into guys that are smooth with words." She began with a confident smile. "I think if you could learn to talk without so much stuttering all the time when talking to her you could probably win her over."

"And you found this out how?" I wondered, crossing my arms in thought.

"I read it in her diary." I glared at her.

"Exactly when did you sneak into her room?"

"I didn't, she actually keeps some of recent old ones in the library, on the shelf closest to her. You'll find them stuffed behind the other books on the shelf that's eye-level." I was dumbfounded. "Just don't let Mary see you take it or reading it."

"So why does this involve you?" I asked regaining composure.

"Like I said before Gray, I feel I owe you for Wednesday."

She said, getting up and going into her kitchen. "By the way, would you like to stay for dinner? I just got satellite TV; some people say I make mean lasagna, which is what you're smelling."

"I can't smell anything right now, it's fall right now and I have minor allergies." I shrugging, I couldn't smell a thing right now. "But yeah I'll stay, better than sharing the bar with the early afternoon boozers."

"I know what you mean; I absolutely hate being there when Duke starts taking his rounds." She agreed, while checking on the lasagna in her oven.

"So what's on tonight?" I said, mildly curious.

"Well I thought I'd watch Cops; you know, to get away from the small town life for a while." I smiled, and replied.

"I know what you mean."

* * *

Travis: Ok so that's it for this chapter. Again these are being produced at school, during free time so don't mind if the next on also takes a little while.

Hikari: Lazy!


	6. Fun with Thunder

I excuse in advance for the fact that this chapter is quite dry, but what I'm trying to do is progress with the story, while giving you the facts and stuff so you'll be able to figure out some of the stuff that will used in the later chapters. So the pure explaining will switch to more detail in later chapters. However it does have some action in it, but please don't think too much into it, at least if you don't want to. More stuff is going to begin to fall into place especially in the following chapters, however if your looking for the end of the story, (which in truth may never come) that will be a long time from now, possibly only after the 30th chapter.

I will use parenthesis a lot to describe things about the characters or for comments by the characters themselves. In any case anything reading them is completely optional (much like this story), and usually will just give you more information about things in the story.

**Chapter 6: Fun with Thunder**

________________________________________

**Gray's PoV, 9:30 AM Fall 6th**

The one fricken day of the year that I got a vacation on; and it has to rain. I only got a vacation about once a year, and these 'vacations' as you could call them, were only caused because the old man took a sick day and "Wouldn't waste it sitting there watching me." So as usual for a day like this I went down to the library to Mary, all the while realizing how damp and windy it had gotten since the trip to work I had made that morning. I arrived at the library, but Mary was nowhere to be found. I slowly walked over to one of the bookshelves in the non-fiction section pulling off a random book that would serve less of the purpose of being read as it would provide cover for glancing at the faire skinned goddess that existed within these walls. Then I remembered the conversation with Claire from the other day, and getting up I remembered what Claire had said about Mary's diaries. I walked over near the desk and looked at the bookshelf to the right; the designated shelf at eye level was filled with black binders that looked as though to be indexes of the libraries contents. Then, assuring myself that no one was coming; pulled one of the large binders aside and discovered several small books all labeled with ages. I removed the book marked 'Age 23' (which would be last year's) and opened it, immediately finding the contents to written very neatly in a letter like format.

"Damn it" I thought to myself. "Claire was right." Just then the door upstairs in the library opened and Mary's voice could be heard through it. Thinking quickly I immediately replaced the binder, the pocketed the small book in the inside breast-pocket of my coat. It was a tight fit but I managed to place it as I walked back to the table with the book I had earlier.

I knew it was mean, but I couldn't help at the time but think about how this could help me get together with Mary. Seconds later, after I had sat down and picked up the book I was about to ignore; Mary came down the stairs.

"Oh hello, Gray. When did you get here?" She asked.

**Claire's PoV, 10:00 AM**

It wasn't that I didn't enjoy the cooler weather, because I did; but when it's this cold, and this windy, I make exceptions. That's not the end of it though 'cause it's also raining on top of that. But I digress...

The cold rain falling now held little indication of the storm that was following, but it fooled no one into security. I walked across my yard kicking at the leaves that had begun to fall as a result of the current breeze that was blowing.

Having finished the work that was due it was now time to sit around and wait for the approaching storm. Knowing that the hurricane was coming helped no bit in calming my nerves. In fact it only succeeded in fraying them further.

I walked into town and stopped suddenly to listen to the rustling leaves and falling rain. I loved the falling leaves...usually; but today it only reminded me of the approaching storm. And then I stood there some more, silently fidgeting while looking at the trees.

Suddenly I turned around bring the shape and image of the library into my view. I had been figuring on the fact that over the past few days or so that Mary had something going on; one of the things I silently pondered at night, trying to fall asleep. The fact was that she hadn't even come to check in on me, and while a outside person might be thinking 'So what?' consider that this is Mary, who could come to tears over the fact that you cut yourself turning the pages of one of the many books in the library.

I must have been quite a sight, standing out in the falling mists, a red raincoat my only real cover from it; but the fact that it was cold didn't bother me, it never did anymore. Not since I was eleven. Back then I knew cold, all the while wandering through cold passages in the city. People can be so cruel sometimes...

There was no doubt that I had suffered quite a bit while younger, I had so many problems. Physical and mental, all blurred into one cauldron that was/is MY sickness. This cauldron was full of a foul soup, that only I was destined to consume form in the end.

I felt a tears start to come to my eyes and no longer felt like taking a walk, and slowly made my way back to my house.

**Gray's PoV, 10:18 AM**

Outside the window she stood staring at the library, probably at the sign above the door. Then she slowly looked down at herself, she then turned around; and then walked slowly in the direction she came. Something was wrong with Claire and it wasn't the weather that was bothering her. I resided to myself that I would go over and see if I could find out anything; besides I had to...thank her for telling me about Mary's diary's.

**Gray's PoV, 5:29 PM**

Mary had closed the library early today in order to prep for the approaching storm. I was lucky in Mineral Town I guess, because I never really had to help prepare for anything; the reason being that Ann and Doug normally did it, barring illness to either of them; only then would I be called upon. I walked down the cobblestone road towards the farm remembering what I had told myself earlier.

I was going to see Claire about the diaries, and ask her about if see alright considering what had happened, earlier today.

I didn't have much time though, the wind was picking up and I could hear thunder far in the distance, signaling the on-coming of the storm; but I figured that I'd have time to get back to the inn, I estimated it to hit around 8.

I approached the house, all the lights were on inside, from what I could see. I knocked loudly on the door. Finally the door opened and in it appeared the smaller farm girl; wearing a light grey tank-top and sweat pants.

**Claire's PoV, 5:34 PM**

I immediately recognized the figure in the doorway. "Gray, what the hell are doing here?" I muttered.

"I came to see you." He said, from beneath his hat. I didn't know why but I really just didn't want to talk to him right now. Maybe it was the fact that I was about to eat dinner, but whatever it was it didn't matter.

"You saw me, goodbye" I muttered; beginning to close the door on him.

"Wait!" He yelled, hurting my ears. He swung his hand up to stop me from closing the door. And I pushed him back. Then the next thing I saw was a bright flash, I heard a loud thundering crack. Suddenly I was being pushed back inside; it was a weird feeling, I had been blinded by the flash, but I couldn't mistake the sensation of being pushed backwards, I had felt it so many times...

"Claire! Dive!" I heard, followed by a loud slam. The last thing I remember, was feeling a tremendous crash; then I blacked out.

10 minutes later...

"Claire...Claire...Claire..." Someone was shouting.

"What?" I muttered weakly. Opening my eyes, I saw Gray leaning over me, a worried expression on his face. I tried sitting up, and when I did I immeadiately felt pain. My left arm was hurting, no less than what it did the day I dislocated it, I had taken off my brace before, I was about to eat dinner before Gray had knocked on my door.

"Claire, you...ow, Claire my hand; Claire my hand, your killing it." Gray yelled. None of it registered until the when I realized Gray's hand was turning a faint blue color from pressure from my right one.

I finally got control, and releasing his hand, he recoiled landing firmly on his ass. I would have laughed, but as soon as I shifted; I screamed out in pain.

"Goddess, Claire. Are you alright?" Gray asked; normally I'd think the gesture to be sweet, but right now is not normally. Glancing down, he must have noticed my brace was absent, he immediately added "Obeying doctor's again Claire?"

"Just get my fuckin' brace, it's on the fuckin' table!" I screamed. "And could you please describe to me what the fuck just happened." I continued. Gray quickly complied, grabbing the piece of hardware off the table.

"What did you see?" He asked, handing me the brace, which I promptly attached to my arm.

"Well all I saw was a flash, and I heard this crash..." I said standing up.

"Oh, boy..." Gray muttered.

"What?"

"Alright, while you were pushing me; apparently a rouge lightning bolt struck the large tree that shadows your house. It fell towards your house, and I got us both out of the way. Apparently it fell short of the house, but planted itself so that we can't get out the door." He said, making interesting hand gestures while doing so.

I sighed. While it shocked me (not literally so) about what happened, I was expecting that old tree to have to come down soon; just not this soon, not in this manner.

"This means I'm stuck with you, for the time being, until someone comes to bail us out?" That was something I preferred not to happen.

"Fine" I muttered. Getting up and taking a few painkillers for my now-throbbing arm. "You're sleeping on the couch though; the extra bedroom won't be finished until mid-Winter." I said, but then muttered: "What I need it for I don't know..."

"That's fine, your couch is probably better than sleeping in those old-ass beds at the inn." He retorted, showing slight amusement; but I knew he was right. I had spent a few days in the inn while having my main bedroom built in, it was like sleeping on rocks.

"Would you want any dinner?" I asked, realizing I had pretty much destroyed my chances for eating the leftovers for breakfast.

"Sure, what is it?" Hey asked, automatically going to the pot.

"Red Curry" I responded, taking a bite of said dinner.

"Really?" He said, with slight interest.

"Yeah, it's one of the few things I was allowed to make when I was young." I said.

"You know, you never really talk about your family..."

"And it'll stay that way." I said blandly.

"Why is that?" He asked quizzically. Taking another bite. "And by the way, this is really good, very spicy."

"Thank you" I began. "Why is because I made a big promise long ago to myself, and when I do that, nothing is excusable for its failure; even death." I said, fading with my voice. I really didn't want to get into a conversation about this with him; we would end up fighting. "Listen, I really don't want to talk to you about this; or anyone for that matter." Gray surprised me when he didn't take the issue further, I would have expected for him to at least acknowledge that I said anything; instead he gave me a look, as to let me know he understood. Did Gray have a secret?

We silently sat, finishing our plates.

"How did you know it was a lightning bolt that struck?" I suddenly asked, not sure why I did.

"Besides the loud boom? I saw a reflection in your window, and I'll still be seeing it a while now…" Gray answered.

"What do mean by that?" I asked, quizzically. Coughing on a bit of food.

"I'm seeing spots. Why aren't you seeing them?" He said, taking another bite.

"You were blocking my view." I said, very matter-of-factly.

"Ah; but at least I wasn't the one who fainted." He retorted, smiling under his hat. Any interest I had in the conversation, suddenly died.

"I didn't faint…" I muttered, I really didn't like people talking about stuff like that when it involved me.

"That's not what it seemed like to me." Gray said, with a sly smile.

"Gray…" I muttered, hoping he'd get the hint.

"No, seriously, you were out for nearly ten minutes." He kept pushing it.

"Gray, I'm warning you." He was pushing it.

"Alright…but seriously you're lucky Ann didn't see it." He looked at me, and I could tell he knew he was in deep shit. SLAM! I hurled my plate into his face, hitting him, meal side first. I stormed off to the comfort of my couch, I screamed at him as I went.

"You fucking ass! And people wonder why I remain single? This is the reason Gray, stupid assholes like you." I sat down on my couch. "This is why I don't date Gray. This is why I'm still alone; like you're going to be for the rest of your fucking life, especially with your stupid 'my life sucks' attitude you're always flying like a flag." Gray did nothing but stare, the red-stained rice still sliding off his face.

"Claire are you alright?" I snapped again; I didn't know what I threw, but it hit him hard, on his right shoulder. "Goddess Claire, what the hell!" He yelled, holding his shoulder with his left hand.

"You deserve it moron!" I screamed, noticing a familiar lump in my throat. "You deserve it for every fucking day of the year you wake up in the morning and decide 'I'm going to make today the shittiest day I can for everyone I fucking meet', you don't have the fucking right to do that!" I was irate; I couldn't believe how badly I was yelling at him. I continued: "You don't have a hard life, you have nothing near a hard life, you don't wake up in the fucking morning fearing for your life; you don't wake up in the morning hoping that today will be a just little different, hoping that you might just get handed just a little slack, and maybe you wouldn't have to be constantly afraid." I was sobbing, I was so furious I began to absolutely sob. I felt slightly faint, and my throat was beginning to hurt. I went to scream at him more, but when I tried nothing would come out.

I leapt off of my couch, and ran into my bedroom; leaving a surely confused Gray in my wake. I slammed my door and locked it behind me. I had no intention of letting Gray get anywhere near me. Jumping onto my bed I began to cry uncontrollably, I just couldn't stop. I didn't know how long it took, but eventually I fell asleep, my face in my hands, the blanket below wet with my tears.

**Claire's PoV, 12:46 AM Fall 7th**

Unpleasant was a way to describe how I woke up. Face-down in a wet puddle of my tears, which had cooled, becoming clammy against my skin. I rolled to the side of my bed, swinging my feet down to meet the floor. I immediately put my hands to my head, even before I knew why, but a splitting headache soon announced its arrival. Normally I would go out to the kitchen to get myself a drink, and tonight I decided against making an exception- I'd never get back to sleep anyway. I unlocked my door and stepped out into the living area of my house.

It was dark in the room, and I reached over and turned on the lights; bringing into view Gray's form slumped over on the armrest of my couch. However he soon began to stir from the light that was now being cast into the room. He sat up as I made my way to the counter and grabbed a bottle of wine off the small rack on the top shelf. Some Aja Red, supposedly one of the wineries finest. It was pretty good, but also consider that most of the other wines didn't sit well in my stomach for some reason.

"You drink?" I asked him, even I knew it was a stupid question, but I threw it just to get him to talk to me.

"In this town?" He muttered. "With all the weird people out here? You have to be insane otherwise." He said walking into the kitchen.

"Any preference?" I asked, however there really was any room for change now, considering I had already opened the bottle, and set it down after pouring myself a glass.

"Not really…" He said, picking up the bottle from the place I had set it down.

"Aja Red?"

"Yeah, I can't seem to drink much anything else. Otherwise I'll be using the toilet for both ends of my digestive system for the next two to six hours; with massive pains for several hours after that." I said taking a swig of my glass. Gray poured himself a glass and took a sip.

"I think I remember that, wasn't it during the first few weeks you were here? You ended up going to the clinic a couple of times because of it. Didn't you?" Gray said, sitting down at the table.

"That would be me." I muttered, sitting down as well, bringing the bottle with me. "Hey, Gray." I began.

"Yeah?" Gray asked, looking up from his drink.

"I'm sorry about earlier" I admitted.

"I'll have to say you did scare me for a while, I was kind of afraid that you had a gun or something." He said, in a reflective sort of manner.

"I do" I deadpanned. Gray looked shocked.

"You, Claire? Seriously? What kind?" He asked, doubting my claim.

".44 revolvers; I've got two of 'em if you were wondering." I said, his eyes opened up and he stared incredulously.

"What could you need such powerful guns for, let alone two?" He asked, I smiled innocently.

"Well, a girl's got to protect herself and her animals." I said not giving it a second though.

"What could possibly be out here that you need such power to knock off?" I smiled.

"Well you know the wild dogs that used to roam the town at night?" There was a pause, as Gray progressed through what I had just intended.

"…You did that?!" He was staring incredulously. He obviously remembered when some of the townsfolk heard gunshots one night, and found the corpses of around ten dogs the next morning. Gotz was thought to have done it, but I guess no one really found out who did it, not that they cared much, as the pack was always reaping havoc on the local farms.

"Yep, it was me. Gotz had nothing to do with it." I admitted openly, grinning uncontrollably. "Bastards deserved it, thought. They took two of my cattle, a couple of chickens; not to mention what they did to the other farms."

"So what did you do?" Gray asked while taking another sip of his wine.

"Well, I saw them scurrying around the outskirts of my farm, and decided that they were probably going out to hunt other people's animals. So I decided I was going to stop their 'rain of terror' once and for all. I loaded up and cut them off heading to the poultry farm. I made damn sure none of them escaped." I told him, saying the last part coldly.

"Damn Claire, I never knew you were so cold; provided I always new you probably had some sort 'dark side', but shit." Gray pondered, and then took another sip of his wine, his glass almost empty. I was beginning to chuckle under my breath. "Never in my wildest dreams…then again." Gray put down his glass and crossing his arms as he spoke. Then he closed his eyes to emphasize the act of his pondering. I laughed.

"Gray you could never fathom how much of an 'evil side' I really have." I said, then taking a mouthful of my drink. Not really caring about how I'd feel the next day, as chances were I wouldn't be able to step outside tomorrow anyway. Gray chuckled shortly, and then passed his glass to me.

"Could I get another glass?"

"Sure, I don't think it'll kill us to share a couple more." I said, picking up the bottle and pouting him another glass. "Then again…with the way things have been going recently, I wouldn't put it past us to get in a knife fight over something stupid. Goddess only knows what." I finished, handing his glass back to him over the table.

"Your probably right about that one" He replied, not really laughing to the intended joke, but more sullen the reality of placing two people in a house with knives and alcohol.

I never knew Gray could be civilized. The same guy who would swear at any person, who crossed him, was sitting across from me at this very moment engaging in semi-cordial conversation. The world still has mysteries.

**Claire's PoV, 2:34 AM**

I was finally feeling tired again and also a bit tipsy as well after consuming about three more glasses of the Aja Red so I finally decided to call it a night/morning/whatever.

"Alright the bathroom's yours." I called to Gray; he immediately took me up on the space. No surprise there, I went into my room finally taking off my pajamas (which are more of an afternoon 'suit' for Me.) and slipping on instead a long, red nightgown. Stepping out of my bedroom I found Gray preparing himself on my couch. I couldn't leave him there.

"Hey, if you want to, you can sleep in my bed." I said, seeing no harm.

"Then where would you sleep?" He asked.

"In the bed, it's a double bed." I explained.

"Seriously? You don't see anything awkward about this?" He hesitated.

"No, just two people sharing a bed; so one doesn't have to sleep on the lumpy, old couch." I motioned for him to follow me.

"Why?" He asked, as we came into the bedroom.

"I already told you." I began. "You're my guest; you shouldn't have to sleep on the couch." I said, sitting down on the right side of my bed. "Besides we shared bottle of wine." I grinned, swinging my legs around and sliding under the blanket.

"Hey, Claire?" Gray muttered. "Thanks."

"You're welcome, Gray." I muttered back, falling to sleep quickly under the influence of the alcohol I had consumed earlier.

**Claire's PoV, 8:43 AM Fall 7th**

Was the first one up the next morning, which was lucky for Me. Gray would have freaked if he woke up in the position I woke up to. I had apparently rolled over last night and found myself gripping his waist this morning. That aside, I had woken up mainly from the headache characterized by the throbbing pain now making its way through my head. I almost regret staying up and drinking a bottle with Gray. I got up slowly slaking my way towards the kitchen, fetching myself a glass of water. I sat at my table watching the shadows of the leaves from the fallen tree outside my window; they were shaking furiously in the now increasing wind, no surprise as the hurricane was supposed to hit mid-morning anyway. It wasn't anything that really bothered me at this point; I had been through many hurricanes before, and it no longer concerned me as much. However, when I had first started out in Mineral Town, hurricanes terrified me.

I woke up the morning of Summer 5th of my first year, and nearly ruined what little underwear I had on (normally just a pair of panties and sometimes a bra). Not kidding at all, that morning I woke up to my entire house shaking and honest to god nearly shit myself. I don't think I ever been that scared since, and I hope never to be so again. It's that feeling you get deep in your stomach that instinctively tells you 'you're going to die.'

I don't know what to think of this hurricane right now however; the weather says it's supposed to be weak, but my gut tells me otherwise and with the way things have been going recently I dare not heed it's insight. I'm now beginning to start to hear the howling winds of the hurricane.

I got up going into my kitchen to brew myself a cup of tea, which was much better for hangovers in my opinion; I just wanted something liquid in me when I drew the water I had just consumed. I put the water and tea leaves in a coffee maker (well not exactly a coffee maker anymore…), I found the coffee maker can work really well; either to warm the water up for use with a tea bag in a cup, or even by putting the tea leaves in the coffee filter and using it like you would with coffee. I pulled my cup out of the cupboard; it was a simple red cup, my favorite color. Seconds later I poured myself a cup of the green tea that I had brewed. I don't usually like my green tea straight, usually I add a fair amount of sugar, but this morning I drank it straight out; waking myself up with the bitter flavor and near-boiling water.

After this I pretty much ceased to think about the storm. I had taken days off before; during the spring and summer, when Cliff had nothing to do I would pay him to take care of my farm, which he did gladly for the little extra money I paid him. I usually stayed inside and worked around the house, cleaning, fixing things, normal stuff you do around the house on an off day. Well, that's what I'd do normally; chances are I wouldn't be feeling well enough, even after my hangover, to work today. What I'd do today is probably start to digest the large stack of DVD's I had accumulated over the past season and a half, hell I even had some from last Christmas that I still have yet to get through. Goddess willing the power doesn't go out. (However that happens very rarely considering the electrical lines to Mineral Town were underground; the only thing that could really disturb them is an earthquake, which don't happen in the area.)

I was slowly becoming more of the world around me and slowly began making a mental checklist of the things I'd have to make sure to do tomorrow morning. I really was hoping that the storm would be over with by tomorrow morning, so I could immediately begin the inevitable repairs on my farm; which, even now, I know would be a fun little fiasco because of my arm.

"Fuckin' wonderful." I said, getting up for another cup of tea, but getting sugar for it this time.

**~ 20 minutes later**

Finally around half an hour later Gray woke, an unusual time for him I'm sure, immediately stepping into the bathroom, I took this as my cue to retrieve a new set of clothes from my room, a chance to rid myself of that smell that accumulates on your clothes overnight (especially after alcohol and/or heavy emotional exertion.)

Today I chose a cute blue shirt with a pair of red sweats. Think 'Strawberries with blueberries' meet 'girl on the farm.' I would shower later; it wasn't one of my primary concerns right now, but regardless I put on a light strawberry scent; my favorite out of the ones I had. It was one of the scents I had picked up on my most recent trip to the city.

I met Gray coming out of the bathroom. "Well good morning to you." I began, putting my hand to his shoulder. Gray slowly turned around and glared at me; I immediately withdrew my hand and passed him, muttering: "Yikes." I forgot Gray is not a morning person.

________________________________________

I couldn't believe that I didn't release chapter 5 before, so I just planned a double release; depending on my school schedule with homework from school (I lost all my study halls) you can expect the next chapter in 2-4 weeks.


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